68 
Finally, as a believer in the prophylactic effects of the growing Eucalyptus 
globulus , I would ask : — 
May not these so-called malarial fevers, which are said now to have 
obtained a footing at Ootacamund, be due to water contaminated with 
organic impurities, or infested with living organisms, which, taken into the 
stomach, may escape the action of its solvent secretions, pass into the circu- 
lation, and produce symptoms analogous to those of malarial fevers ? 
The presence of cholera there certainly lends colour to the assumption. 
Mr. Hastings C. Dent writes 
There is one sentence in Dr. Gordon’s paper to be read next Monday 
which I think needs qualifying. 
At the end of Section 35 : — “ Insects are adapted to a very limited range 
of climate.” 
I will only give one instance, which tends to show that this is not in every 
case according to observation : — 
The Butterfly Pyrameis Cardui, or Painted Lady, is found all over the 
world, with the exception of South America, where an allied species takes 
its place. This insect is absolutely invariable, absolutely similar wherever it 
occurs. I have now before me specimens from Shetland Islands, England, 
Cape of Good Hope, and India, all exactly similar. Near Hudson’s Bay it 
is also unchanged. 
Pyrameis Cardui and P. Atalanta (the Red Admiral) are generally found 
in company, but, while in most cases constant in form and markings, P. 
Atalanta varies more than P. Cardui. For instance, near Hudson’s Bay, 
Atalanta varies slightly from the general type. In India, P. Atalanta is not 
found, but we discover there an allied species, P. Indica or Callirrhoe, which 
insect, though bearing a striking general resemblance to P. Atalanta , has on 
some portions of its wings markings similar to P. Cardui, in company with 
which butterfly it is there discovered. 
P. Callirrhoe appears, therefore, an intermediate form between P. 
Atalanta and P. Cardui, though, as I have stated, the former is not found 
in India. 
Dr. Gordon says very truly, on Section 24, that the occasional phenomenal 
abundance of insects, at other times scarce, is unaccounted for P. Cardui is 
a case in point ; some years— for instance in 1881 — it is so abundant as to 
be almost a plague, while frequently the next year it is almost unknown in 
the locality. I may also mention the beautiful Chardeas graminis, the 
Antler moth, a local insect, which last year occurred in such abundance 
on Pendle Hill, Lancashire, as to be a source of great alarm to the agricul- 
turists ; millions of the larvae were destroyed. 
I consider Dr. Gordon’s paper a very useful one, and it will, no doubt, 
give rise to an abundance of confirmatory evidence. 
REPLIES BY SURGEON-GENERAL GORDON, C.B. 
In reply to the remarks by Surgeon-Major Smith, I would observe that 
there is no evidence whatever to support the theory that “ malarial ” fevers 
at Ootacamund are due to any other causes than such as are local or climatic 
in their nature. I would further say that neither impurities, organisms, 
nor germs, although carefully sought for in India to account for fever in that 
country, have been definitely proved to be connected with that form of 
